ABOUT US

Steve Friess is a 2011-12 recipient of the prestigious Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where he will be studying the impact of the rapid expansion of Vegas-style gaming on Asia. He's a podcaster, author and Vegas-based freelance journalist who writes regularly for USA Today, The New York Times, Newsweek and many others. His column, "The Strip Sense" appears every Thursday in the Las Vegas Weekly. His books include "Gay Vegas" from Huntington Press and Knopf Mapguides' "Las Vegas."Friess co-hosts the weekly celebrity interview podcast The Strip Podcast "The Strip" with his husband, Miles Smith, the executive producer at KSNV-TV, Channel 3. For four years, Steve also co-hosted The Petcast with Las Vegas Sun education scribe Emily Richmond.

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According to Leach, Garrett is getting the cops involved because he says the Tweeter has also been impersonating him by calling "ticket brokers about my new Comedy Club shows at the Tropicana" and sending "out dozens of fake Twitter messages pretending to be me and saying things I’d never say. ... He behaves as if he is me and has Twitter conversations with people as if he was me, and they all think it is me. It is not me." Garrett refers to the whole thing as "stalking" and told Leach that his "stalker" may even have pictures of his family.

The only problem is that Robin wrote in his own Twitter feed that Garrett didn't even know what @BaddGarrett had written until Robin showed it to him yesterday:

Uh, Robin? How would the real Brad Garrett know to say, "He behaves as if he is me and has Twitter conversations with people as if he was me" if he didn't know UNTIL THAT VERY CONVERSATION what might be being said in @BaddGarrett's Tweets? How could say "he’s had his lawyer go to the District Attorney’s Office and criminal detectives to hunt down the impostor" if he didn't even know what the Tweets said until YOU SHOWED THEM TO HIM?

Best case scenario: Garrett does have some sort of stalker or impersonator and he decided on the spot when Robin showed him a few select Tweets from @BaddGarrett that the Tweeter and the stalker were the same thing. And somehow Robin didn't think to say, "Well, Brad, how do you know this Twitter guy is the same guy?"

But wait. There's more.

Y'see, the day before Garrett complained to Leach, I publicly asked the official Tweeter for the Tropicana Hotel-Casino whether @BaddGarrett was actually the comic. I doubted it, but I figured asking would be worthwhile. And this is what @TropLV wrote:

In other words, the publicists for the Trop knew this Tweeter wasn't their headliner but they were HAPPY that @BaddGarrett was out there as an "advocate" for #BGCC, which is a hashtag for the Brad Garrett Comedy Club.

I don't know about any impersonations offline, but @BaddGarrett is and always has been a somewhat obvious parody Twitter feed. How Robin Leach didn't instinctively know that is truly baffling, but his Las Vegas Weekly colleague John Katsilometes himself wrote today (2nd item) that he's known it was a parody for weeks. A parody is not an impersonation, especially when the person doing the parodying acknowledges he's not the actual person whenever he's asked.

Parody Twitter feeds have a long history, at least long for the life of Twitter, anyhow. @NotSteveJobs, @BPGlobalPR and @ATT_Wireless_PR are three that I follow and giggle at. The last two are even less opaque than @BaddGarrett; if that really were the comedian, it surely would have been spelled correctly.

Many, many stars and notables have taken easy measures to clarify for the public which Twitter feeds are theirs -- including @Robin_Leach! Why did Robin not give his pal Brad the 411 on how to set up a "verified account" on Twitter the way he or @ActuallyNPH or @The_Real_Shaq did. Problem solved!

Instead, Robin's opted to be the voice of hysteria for Garrett, calling out @BaddGarrett on Twitter as a "fraud" who is "headed for the slammer! Good riddance to anybody this sick, twisted and mean!" Yes, those are actual excerpts of Robin's Tweets.

See, I reserve "sick, twisted and mean" to people who commit actual, usually violent, crimes. Making loving fun of a famous person in a manner that isn't even original hardly rises to that level. Robin Tweeted: "You have tricked & deceived people into thinking you are him." Who? Somebody -- anybody! -- step up and say, "Yes, he told me he was the real guy and I've been damaged by this horrifying experience." This is something that Robin Leach believes we need to tie up our court system with? Seriously? I wonder how nutso Robin would get if someone poisoned his cat.

@BaddGarrett, whoever he is, has altered his bio to clarify for the truly joke-impaired what he's up to:

That really ought to be where the matter stops. At least via Twitter, the author of that feed has not broken any law. If he happens to also be calling people claiming to be Garrett, then maybe there's something there. But someone would have to prove that and right now there doesn't seem to be any evidence.

7
comments:

Anonymous
said...

You need to get you facts straight. This person is dangerous. A convicted stalker and is a woman who has delusions she is in a reltionship with the real Brad Gareet. She has also stalked Los Angeles Rock Musician Jay Link on twitter under this account reveling his home address phone numbers, courts records and much more.Twitter need to rid their website of this maniac.

How would you know that, Robin? If you actually knew the identity of @BaddGarrett, surely you would have said it by now. Where's the evidence? If the facts are as you say, then it would be really really easy to come right out and post the person's name -- especially if there's a prior conviction.

Steve- regret to advise I am not the person who commented as "anonymous"- altho obvious you jumped to that incorrect conclusion.You should read the flood of Twitter messages from people that this person has aggravated including Kelsey Grammar. I don't know the identity which you incorrectly imply although everybody says the person is a woman named Ingrid with many Twitter accounts. Brad Garrett was well aware of all the Twitter messages this person had sent out for weeks before I showed him yesterday's which is when he told me he started legal ball rolling on Thursday. He also began the DA process because of all the other "stalker like" actions by this person.So quick to always slam . You have my number. You can always call to get facts straight first!

If Brad Garrett knew of the tweets, then why did Robin Leach tweet that he was the one who made Garrett aware of them? Robin Leach is lying but I don't know which statement is the lie. What a hack. Why couldn't that dude have just faded into obscurity? The Greenspuns should be ashamed for foisting his noise onto the general public.

Celebrities, and even people who aren't quite celebrities, love to call people out as "stalkers." It gives them a sense of self-importance. In fact, their publicists, managers, agents, etc. also love to talk about stalkers. Sometimes it's based on no more than repeated fan mail or showing up at advertised personal appearances. The accusations can cause harm if the names of the so-called "stalkers" become known before there is any grounds for legal action that can be taken (because there is often not). Ridiculous. It's one thing if these people pose a credible threat, but Brad Garrett is throwing baseless accusations around which will make it more difficult to take him seriously if he ever faces a real stalker. He doesn't even seem to know who is doing what, it sounds like he has more than one person up to monkey business that may or may not be any form of stalking. You should ask your friends in show business if they've ever had "stalkers" and what they consider stalking to be and what they or their "people" did about it. It might make for an interesting story.

Dear Robin, Interesting that you claim not to know @BaddGarrett's identity, but then you go ahead and post here and on Twitter the name of someone you have no proof is @BaddGarrett other than heresy. How thoughtful of you. That person could possibly sue you for defaming their name. You aren't too smart. Kelsey Grammar is upset? Boo hoo. Why, because someone may not like him? Other celebrities get attacked on Twitter, and you don't see them whining. And in any case, aren't people allowed to have free speech about whomever or whatever they want? If it was libelous, why didn't Kelsey sue them????

To add some other interesting background, originally when the Trop announced Garret's club, they tweeted that BaddGarret was the identity of Brad Garret. This went on about a day and they tweeted an apology. The Trop advised that BaddGarret was just a really big fan after their apology.

THE STRIP FINALE

Below are links to the final episodes and last week of special editions of The Strip Podcast. Right-click on any of these to save and hear at your leisure. Otherwise, click on them and they should play. Enjoy, and thanks for the wonderful years.